Memorial Day Remembrance: Our Al, a Candid Message..And of Course, Niceties

Photo by Robert Stock


All is well on the homefront.  The above is a photo of me the past year with our first grandbaby, our grandson when he was more of a little infant.  I'm wearing one of my MiMi dresses, this one is of space babies in a wonderfully delightful vintage print reproduction.  It has space ducks and little animals along with the hooman space babies..I had also made a pillow for each of our little grandsons to match.  Timmy here is wearing his little nautical romper I also made, and now I've seen Jimmy our next to be born little grandson wear it too!

  Jimmy

  Timmy now. (Wearing the Charlie Brown and Snoopy shorts I made)

I've been very engaged lately sewing Little Dresses and Little Britches for Africa and just reading some good ol' books.

We've had Memorial week and it made me think of not only my dad but my precious, precious step dad, Al.  



The photo above was taken when we moved into the home pictured, he and the girls planted the tree there.  Al was a wonderful PaPa to our girls and was such a sweetheart.  He fought in WWII and gave unselfishly.  He had earned a medal and I'm researching that now.  He loved the girls so much, he would carry Baby Zuzu around over his shoulder and she would sing in her baby language. Here he is with Janie and Joycie before Zuzu was born, poor little Grace never knew him and Zuzu doesn't remember him, oh that is so sad to me.  He and mother lived in a humble little house in the middle of Houston, he would walk Janie and Joycie to the corner store and he'd buy them little goodies to eat and drink...So cute.  Those were some precious times...   He was an extremely talented sculptor and sculpted Dr. Cooley's marker.  He would crack me up, he was from an old Italian family from the Bronx, New York and I would get so tickled because he did not like it when the southerners would joke about the New Yorkers!  He was so sweet, you would get tickled even when he was aggravated!  When a heart attack took him suddenly it really did me in.  The hospital sent my mom home in a taxi with his clothes over her arm that night.  Me, being home, my little ones safely tucked in bed already I was horrified, running out in the yard looking up at the stars as if I could call him back somehow, my cries were so hard that they were silent,  standing outside in the pitch dark in the very yard pictured above, in a big, long yellow Garfield tshirt nightgown...Horrified.  In shock.  I remember being in tears bringing his suit and tie to the funeral home, I was so choked up I about threw those beautiful clothes at the stone-calm (like water off a duck's back) receptionist before running out, two young men my age there for a loved one staring as if they were to say We're so sorry...I still remember all of the faces.  That was back in 1990.  Little Joycie said her best friend had died.  Baby Zuzu would run to men at the grocery store with silver hair and put her little arms around their legs...  As you can see or read, I'm part of the Companionship of Brokeness and if you are of the Companionship of Brokeness  then you are probably a kindred spirit here.  ...And I really do miss Al many a day...many a day. 






I have lots of little goodies to show you, my pretty garden and such...I've been a little stressed, my mother fainted at the table again on Mother's Day so prayers are always appreciated for my mom and me.  My adult daughters are a huge help too as well as my loving husband.  

I'll be back soon with some eye candy.  I'm praying for our country and I hope you are too, our Victor's Wreath will be in the prayer closet.  And may we be that Watchman on the Wall and use words to warn if necessary.  I have what you would call a counselor or a healer personality, I have mercy and prophet both, so please oblige.  Do I sound like the book, Please Understand Me?  (smile).




Here's something I thought I would share, it's something a radio commentator played this evening:


A Warning from 1965 from Paul Harvey:





In closing:

One distant shot of my ivy gardens and Lilac tree last month...More to come.  I'm discovering my gardens are one of my happy places.



  Bethany.  I have restored her, repairing a fracture and a little hole in her poor little face, and broken pieces from a cruel fall... and then repainting her with her little child on her lap.  I think Bethany is so peaceful and represents motherhood so well.



   Jimmy's little handprint.  This was our first art project!  Little Jimmy presented this to his mommy, Joycie that very day.  So fun.  Zuzu and I did one with little Timmy the other day. 

  My little birds I also restored, one was fractured and missing part of his tail.  I made another tail with a tissue and school glue, repaired the hole in his poor little chest and touched up the paint so he is happy now.  They guard my window and tell each other little secrets through the day, they also guard my coffee stash.

  My pitcher of hibiscus tea...I enjoy drinking this iced through the day.   I still am using my cloth 'napkins'.   I still keep them in a shiny glass bowl there and grab those even before I'll grab a paper towel.  They are so much softer and there is somewhat of a comfort in my little 'napkins'...Who wouldn't love these little doggies on this one?

  Well, Loves, I hope you are all faring well.

Take care now, signing off from My Forest Cathedral.   ~Amelia

This is BEAUTIFUL and it's TOMORROW ON EASTER!

I can't wait!   ANDREA BOCELLI  LIVE AT DUOMO CATHEDRAL, MILAN, ITALY.  TOMORROW.  EASTER.  LIVE ON YOUTUBE.

My Italian grandpa, Vincent Oddo was an opera singer in New York when he arrived here in America as an immigrant with his cousin, Jerome Trapolino.  My husband is a musician and we both have a love of music so this is just very touching and exciting to me.  A Gift.  On Easter.



“On the day in which we celebrate the trust in a life that triumphs, I’m honored and happy to answer ‘Sì’ to the invitation of the City and the Duomo of Milan. I believe in the strength of praying together; I believe in the Christian Easter, a universal symbol of rebirth that everyone – whether they are believers or not – truly needs right now. Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world, we will hug this wounded Earth’s pulsing heart, this wonderful international forge that is reason for Italian pride. The generous, courageous, proactive Milan and the whole of Italy will be again, and very soon, a winning model, engine of a renaissance that we all hope for. It will be a joy to witness it, in the Duomo, during the Easter celebration which evokes the mystery of birth and rebirth” Andrea Bocelli


Fall on Me, Andrea Bocelli and his son, Matteo Bocelli.  I think this is so beautiful...


I know I posted the video above, 'Fall on Me' last entry, please oblige.   I've been enjoying this song in our kitchen as I prepare our evening dinner.  Our evening dinner is just Jem and I these days and my quiet time in the kitchen is my grandma's hands preparing our dinner...I see my hands and I see her hands.  I hear this song?  It is God speaking to my heart.  God the Father.  

Fall on me with open arms...Fall on me where you are...


He is there with us.


My daughter tells me the concert will be 12pm our time.  We are in the south in the U.S.    It's live, so please check your particular time in your part of the world.  



I'll close with Doctor's Orders, I recently saw:  
Micah 6:8
1.)  Do justly
2.)  Love Mercy
3.)  Walk Humbly


    
Me with Jimmy, our secondborn little grandchild.   


In Christ,   He is risen.   What would I do without the Father?     ~Amelia

Edited: "Heartwarming Moments. Quarantined Italians Sing Together from Balconies" An Example. My Grandpa.

My daughter, Joycie sent me this and I just loved it:



The bald headed man singing Puccini reminds me of my Grandpa Oddo.  The way he picks up the little boy at the end?  Yes.  That was my grandpa...He so loved children and he and my grandma lived simply.

It reminds me of this quote, and you can easily substitute he instead of she:

What constitutes success?  She has achieved success who has lived well;  laughed often and loved much;  who has gained the respect of intelligent people and the love of little children;  who has filled her niche and accomplished her task;  who has left the world better than she found it;...who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty, or failed to express it;  who has always looked for the best in others and given the best she had.     -Bessie Stanley



My grandpa was from Bisaquino, Sicily where Frank Capra was from, my grandma was from Naples.

My grandpa sang opera when he was young and when he would sing to us even in old age he sounded like the man singing Puccini.  When Grandpa immigrated to New York around 1915 with his cousin, Jerome, he was hanging his clothes out of his apartment there.   He sang so beautifully that a lady walking down the street from the opera heard him and asked him to come sing in the opera.  He did until he was called to this southern state to unite with his family who came to America later.  He was so proud to become an American!  

I am half Italian and half German.  *big smile*   My husband is also of Italian descent, we met at an Italian wedding! 

So there you have it.

Have a blessed Saturday and Sunday as we concentrate on the Lord and rest in Him.



Let these great Italians be a good reminder of how we can make lemonade out of lemons, right?

Love to all,    ~Amelia in the Forest.

P.S.  Grandpa and Grandma?  You would be so proud, I'm living out in the country and gardening too!

Peace Be With You...

The other early evening I walked into our master bathroom and I heard the most beautiful song on khcb, our traditional Christian radio station, it was as if Christ was giving me soothing refreshment to my soul, it was an ethereal feeling.  I was almost stunned and stopped in my tracks.  I closed my eyes and just received the refreshment.

Later the announcer made an announcement of the song and specific artist on the variety cd.  I now have the cd, Scripture Lullabies, Hidden in my Heart Volume I  to play in my kitchen..I also play it on my channel master on youtube on television and it goes from one song to another.  There are several volumes, this is the first.

I just wanted to share the Beauty and Peace with you all.



This second selection is just gorgeous, remember when you were a child and there was a special movie on around Easter time?  Or just something that struck your soul...a miracle of sorts?  This music is the kind of music that would describe that feeling or moment...  Enjoy.  I like the ten hour version but there is also a single selection by Samuel Barber on youtube as well.  




I have the above playing now as I type...



Closing with some special recent photos here.





Cardinals are very special to me, they are God's messengers and comfort.  Here is one I spotted through my back screen porch perched on a bird feeder I made with a dollar tree cup and saucer on a metal hook-hanger also from dollar tree.






This is Liesl yesterday evening, she is the sweetest, most affectionate and loyal dog we've ever seen I think.  Look at the love in her eyes...She had gone from one home to another and my daughter had her but the surroundings were not large enough so we are so very, very blessed to have this most precious fur-angel here...  And she is that, a fur-angel.



Wherever we are, she is there. Whether it's on a walk or a precious heartbeat at our feet in the living room, her sweet little head resting on our knee looking up at us...She is there.  Even if the little Dachshund takes her treat she lets him...Oh if humans would learn to be like Liesl.  (And yes, I give poor Liesl another treat.) 





More photos from yesterday evening and night.  It's hard to capture the peace and solace the forest brings...  Sometimes I stand and just quietly and being very still...Take it all in...



I saw the moon last night as  we sat in the living room watching an old black and white movie.   I couldn't let this pass me by...I grabbed my phone and stepped out quickly to capture the Beauty.


Well, I hope things are going well for you dear ones.   The nutritionist will be sending an email soon letting us know if further testing through yet another doctor is necessary at this time for my mother.  We have a very good report on my mother's heart.  She is 90 years old and her heart is in very good shape, the sweet cardiologist with a Christian staff tells my mother...Oh my goodness, you cannot be 90!  You are very unique!   Thanks be to God.   So we'll see how the arteries on her neck are doing and I'm a firm believer in doing things the most natural way possible.

These kinds of things have the ability to be very trying for me emotionally, I've had my feel of bad people in medicine, no, I wasn't always like this, I have good reason to be this way believe me. I know they are not all bad but I have heard some personally, and I know some, some good and some bad.  There are a few angels but many are in the system.

I think all the testing is emotionally trying for my mom too and is even causing her to have faint spells even more.   I pray that the nutritionist-doctor will get down to the bottom of things and that will be that!  *gentle smile*

Prayers are appreciated and special thanks to those of you who have prayed, it blessed my heart and I am grateful. 

I do know many of you have experienced the same or similar and the same moon that shines over me shines over you too.  It's a comfort isn't it?  To know that brothers and sisters all over the world go through these things?   I'm very blessed to have good daughters and a good husband to help me with this situation who aren't wired quite like me; in such a delicate way or who haven't been through things to make them quite like me.  I do know God works things for His good, if we have been through things?  I think it's to help others and to be that understanding one.

God is our refuge.

Thanking God for each one of you!  Your comments are a Blessing to me.  I think God works greatly through blogs, I really do.  

Have a sweet evening, Loves,   ~Amelia in the Forest

Two Weddings, Not Entering Heelotville

Well after my last blog, some may wonder...

What did your daughters do for wedding dresses you may ask?  What kind of weddings does your family do?   Well, we try to keep it sensible.  Probably to a more extravagant person, they may think they are very simple.  Perhaps to a family on a very limited budget it may seem very nice.

So far, two of our four daughters are married so here goes.

One thing we did to try to save money and keep things sensible is order the wedding dresses online.  We found lovely dresses overseas.  Didn't that scare you Mrs. Amelia?  There was definitely some trepidation I must tell you!  Haha, especially the first one!  But for the price we really could not go wrong.  We found a vendor with very, very good reviews and rating.  The vendor answered our questions within 12 hours and answered them well.  The vendor had detailed instructions on how to measure for the wedding dress.  They even gave us a choice between a lace-up back or buttons.  They recommended lace up back because that was easier to fit but we wanted buttons, we also asked the vendor if we could 'up' the neckline an inch so it would not be low cut.  The dress later arrived in a plastic bag and ....  It fit!  It even had french seams!

The one thing we did tweak on daughter3's dress was the sleeves.  She wanted the sleeves to be a teensy bit more fitted.  We found a precious sewist in uso-town who fixed that problem very, very reasonably.  I also had the sewist hem my dress.  I could have tried to do all of this myself, I do sew simply with a Walmart simple Brothers machine that I adore and depend on, and I sew by hand, but with delicate fabrics requiring special machinery to get that handkerchief hem....I wasn't equipped to do that unless I sewed it all by hand, the simplicity of someone else doing that for me was wonderful and with the french seams?  I don't think I could have attempted to keep the french seams.

The flowers were done by a precious master florist right here in our little smalltown.  A hidden gem.  A young doc friend of the girls, also a prodigy with his violin, played that violin and it was gorgeous. The cathedral organist was included, a wowee winning combination. The church was a beautiful, an over one-hundred year-old Wesleyan cathedral in downtown where my parents were married but in the chapel back then.  The grand cathedral  has beautiful stained glass windows with Jesus and His little lambs.  Around five years ago, they had a pastor there that I loved, we would sit up in the balcony across from the stained glass window with Jesus with the little lambs...The place just had the breath of the Holy Spirit that whispered to my soul.  The first time we attended, my husband and I both had tears running down our faces up there in that balcony.  Unfortunately some different progressive thinking hit the place, a different, more progressive in a not-such a-good-way thinking pastor and I'm grieved about that major.  We can't support that.  (another blog).  Please pray about that with me would you?  I am counting on God to restore that beautiful place.

We live in the forest but like to step in our Jetson mobile of sorts and go to downtown every now and then.  Memories of me as a happy child with my parents are there in the zoo and museum district, also where both my husband and I were born.  I guess I'm very sentimental and eclectic...  The forest and artsy classic downtown.  The suburbs?  ...Not so much, not a fan of the busy system of cookie-cutterism.  Haha.  I've lived there too, and yes there were good points but I missed my forest peace and simplicity.

We had the reception in the reception hall at the church.  Why not?  *big smile*  It was rather neat, dark teal heavy vintage curtains hung as a backdrop that gave it that vintage vibe we so love. The hall also offered low reset lighting and parquet floor so what was there not to like?  For our family it worked nicely.  We kept the food to finger foods (good, heavy finger foods) we didn't want to make people hangry so to speak!  lol  We had the hors d'ouevres catered from a Mediterranean place in downtown we love.  Lot's of hummus in large cabbage leaf flowers, olives, many cheeses, pita chips, a variety of little mediterranean dainties, fruits etc.  We served iced tea and coffee.  On the invitations it was printed, "Cake and hors d'oeuvre reception to follow ceremony."  This way, no one expected a seated full dinner.  The wedding was an afternoon wedding at three.  The lady who made the beautiful tiered wedding cake made the most delicious Italian cream cake with a chocolate layer under the white icing!  We had so many compliments!  For music we had a piano player play background music to give things a relaxing vibe.  We used burgundy table cloths with short stacks of  old vintage Grace Livingston Hill books placed artfully with a vase of fresh simple fresh flowers  atop of  each.  The bride and her sisters and special friends worked hard I must say on this.  We would hire that out if we did that again.  Way too much ironing for them. The tablecloths were from...ebay of course!  Great value there for the sturdy tablecloths too.  We didn't have a ton of tables, just enough for people to land and visit with each other if they wanted to.

You can see where some of our thoughts were running here on my HEELOT entry that may give you some laughs!  Probably because it's the truth!   lol

In our family we try very hard NOT to be a HEELOT!   lol



To save on trauma or money on tuxes when daughter2 got married 2 years later?  My husband and groom had the epiphany to buy matching  black suits from J.C. Penneys on sale, much, much more economical and and looked  stunning on my husband, groomsmen and ushers.  White dress shirts, white handkerchief squares and matching ties purchased online.  My son in love wore his own suit in grey.


So, when daughter2 got married, we took the same path.  We ordered her dress from the exact same vendor.  She also took her dress to a sewist to have it taken in, and the day before she even decided to make it sleeveless so daughter2 did that herself by hand!  The dress was made with excellent construction and once again, french seams.  The venue was a lovely glass conservatory, part of a  historical museum from the Victorian age.  More of a garden feel this time.  The food was once again, heavy finger foods from our own provider, iced tea and coffee, and we used the same lady to bake the same exact cake.   We picked some of our beautiful favorites from 'To Kill a Mockingbird"  instrumentals as the bridesmaids and myself were coming down the aisle.  Congregational hymns were sung before the ceremony started.  A professional young musician friend played violin as a gift. We were to have a trio to play old time 40s background music such as Nat King Cole selections but the wedding had been canceled because of a huge Hurricane so was postponed one week.  So we forfeited the trio and played Nat King Cole and other old charming classic cds overhead for background.  The conservatory was so loud with visiting no one heard anyhow so there ya go.  The guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.  After the ceremony, before the reception, the guests were able to browse the historical museum as the conservatory chairs for the ceremony were being set to the side. The museum in the huge old Victorian home actually at one time was an orphanage for Christian and Jewish children long ago.  Very beautiful grounds.





When I was looking up past entries finding pics and such I came across  this quote.  I know it's a  bit off-topic but in lieu of this day and age of churchdom, it can be quite fitting depending on what we are personally dealing with or have dealt with.  The one thing I try to get over to people that have  been hurt by churches though...It's not Jesus who hurt you, it was some manmade thing or person who hurt you.  It's not Jesus who did that and  trust me, it grieves His heart too.


'When any church will inscribe over its altar as its sole qualification for membership the Savior's condensed statement of the substance of both the law and the Gospel, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself” that church will I join with all my heart and soul.' 

 -President Lincoln



 And one of my favorite all time favorite quotes!

"Too many people are buying things they can't afford, with money that they don't have... to impress people that they don't like!"   

-Will Smith

 

Need encouragement avoiding the Heelot syndrome?  May I suggest my blogging friend, Mrs. Sharon White's delightful book?   An Old Fashioned Budget.   I've enjoyed all of Mrs. Sharon White's books, they just bring a song to my heart.  It's like having a sweet neighbor to have coffee with. 

 

I hope you all are doing well, I try to keep up with others' blogs as I am able and I do enjoy them.  

Please pray for me right now and our family, my mom is being taken to the nutritionist and cardiologist and it is entailing a lot.  Way more then we bargained for.  Lot's of pressure going on of various degrees.   Our heads are spinning.   Prayers please!


What a Friend we have in Jesus is what comes to mind,  

Love to you all,    ~Amelia in the Forest 

Looking Back: Being Redeemed from Materialistic Thinking and What God Has Done!

Hello Dear Readers, I felt I needed to put an update up, and let precious readers know that I have not abandoned the blog here but just have been so busy trying to get things in order.  I have felt discouraged with the blog at times but God gently alerts me to who the audience is.

Going through many possessions  and things has given new meaning to the scripture from the Bible:

Matthew 6:19-21 King James Version (KJV). 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

 

Here is a good example up above.  You will see my once lovely wedding dress from 1980.  This dress is from Sakowitz and was heirloomed.  We paid $100.00 to heirloom this lovely dress made in France from Sakowitz that we paid over $1500.00 dollars for in 1980, just for the dress, not counting the veil or petticoat etc.  I know, (frivolous)  totally ridiculous.  Thank God I have gotten away from any thinking of that nature or world of the big city so to speak. Unfortunately, I was young and had gotten mixed up with materialistic people in town and started thinking their way on things, very sad indeed, just awful really especially in liu of the very non-materialistic way I was brought up.  Yes, we had nice things whether it was from Sakowitz or Kmart, but it was always in a sensible, practical way of what was needed and the quality.  I know materialistic people can be anywhere, not just the city, that just happens to be where the story setting was for me back when, when I was deceived on some things.

When my daughter took the dress from the sealed Heirloom box when she was planning her wedding in 2017, it was brown!  The netting was rotted and when she lifted the poor deteriorating thing up out of the box, it looked like it was something from the Dickens novel, Great Expectations that Mrs. Havisham wore or worse!  

Because of my life in Christ, thank God this kind of thing doesn't bother me much, but I laughed and covered my mouth in amusement.  I know, it sounds awful that I felt that way but just knowing the way people look at that kind of thing, the name dropping etc....and just seeing the condition of this is really so very fitting.  It's a shame it had to be my wedding dress from my almost 40 year marriage but my heart is just not in material possessions of this nature any more.  In fact, I am repelled by things like that.  Actually this dress was going to the burn pile I was in such a hurry to not deal any longer with it over 2 years later after opening the sacred box.  (Oh my gosh).

If it would have been an old photo of a loved one or a handmade item that one of my little girls or husband made me or picked out for me etc., that would have bothered me much much, much more. 

I did manage to cut the border off the bottom in one large circular piece and cut the little white medallions and the one pitiful sheer, delicate long sleeve so meticulously beaded in pearls by little ladies in France.  The poor little pearls had turned a 1960s appliance-brown.  The pearls reminded me of my Grandma Oddo's dark brown refrigerator!


Yes, I've soaked those pieces and somewhat redeemed them back to white just as Christ does our hearts and just as He refines my Heart day to day as I abide in Him!  I spend time with Him!  I walk with Him and I talk with Him...  There is nothing like that and no price can be paid for that.  *big smile*.

...........................................

For encouragement, this is a video done by one of our daughter for her doctor.  It tells of what she went through, and actually she and her husband were having to stay with us after a natural disaster and she started feeling better!  You will hear why and how God moved.  That was when the dress above was uncovered as Marianna was thinking of using the dress for her particular wedding.  We all had a good laugh on that dress thank God.

 Our daughter spoke of the Lord and how her healing was His doing and how He leads but sadly, the producers took that part out.




Now our daughter and her husband have a little miracle baby!  He is pictured here with our little dog that was dumped out here, a little Godsend fur angel for us to enjoy, Peanut.   They were both resting so peacefully a couple of weeks ago on our couch, I thought it was so sweet, the two of them. 


This is Peanut another day, just resting, resting, resting...  Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.  I'm tempted to worry at times, but it's much better to take the cue of Asher and Peanut I think and trust Jesus and rest in Him just doing the next thing...



Before I close, I would like to recommend a Pastor that my husband and I enjoy very much.  His name is Zac Poonen and he is on sermonindex.net. Zac Poonen has podcasts as well, and we usually listen to those once a week or so, he is on youtube as well.   If you are looking for good sermons there is an abundance on sermonindex.net..   You will find David Wilkerson and Carter Conlon as well as other classics.

I'm still decluttering and trying to just take life one step at a time!  Praying for you all, I know Brothers and Sisters are reading from different parts of our country and world and I appreciate you so much!

Until the next time,   Amelia at The Forest Cathedral,  praying for you and I covet your sweet prayers as well.


A peaceful evening here at in the forest...The moon is so pretty I think.   

Onward, Un-Nerved but Ever so Thankful. Going Straight Ahead.

"The irons of sorrow and loss, the burdens carried as a youth, and the soul's struggle against sin all contribute to developing an iron tenacity and strength of purpose, as well as endurance and fortitude.  And these traits make up the indispensable foundation and framework of noble character.

Never  run from suffering, but bear it silently, patiently, and submissively, with the assurance that it is God's way of instilling iron into your spiritual life.  The world is looking for iron leaders, iron armies, iron tendons, and muscles of steel.  But God is looking for iron saints, and since there is no way to impart iron into His people's moral nature except by letting them suffer, He allows them to suffer....

...Your iron crown of suffering precedes your golden crown of glory, and iron is entering your soul to make it strong and brave."             F. B. Meyer

But you will not mind the roughness, nor the steepness
   of the way,
Nor the cold, unrested morning, nor the heat of the noonday;
And you will not take a turning to the left or the right,
But go straight ahead, nor tremble at the coming of the night,
   For the road leads home.

 Excerpt above from Streams in the Dessert devotional.  December 27.


Oh my soul is full with thankfulness, joy and feeling a bit un-nerved.  The above devotional struck to my heart this December.

The night of Christmas I didn't know I would be seeing ambulance lights through my mother in law's glass door as I was taking my own mother's pulse.

Thanking God my mother is okay but also knowing that she is approaching 90 it's bothered me lately.  Someone came to me and asked if it was normal for my mom to be sleeping in the dining room chair chair at the table drooling.  (No!)   I couldn't  believe the sight I saw and shouted for someone to call 911.  Audible prayers were coming forth.  Thank God we were in the midst of Christians no matter what the slight differences.  What was in our teabags in that boiling water was coming out trust me.  Prayers still going forth as I finally started calling for my mother to come back!  Not only did I  I stand there amidst audible prayers of those around us ...In the name of Jesus, but a shout of a young lady ordering to start cpr (never needed thank God)....a scared young man calling 911...my daughters crying, young ladies taking my daughter's baby to help out, a new guest, a new precious girlfriend hugging my daughter telling her it will be okay, people scattering everywhere, my sister in law who just lost her husband months ago suddenly and tragically, she calling out my mother's name as my mother finally peeked her weary eyes to her.  My adult nephew, an emt so sweetly helping out, such a fine young man raised right.  My daughter's boyfriend coming through the door, medicine is his thing, I wanted to hug his neck.  I stood there stoic just doing the next thing trying to keep my cool (I think we mothers are specialists at this at times, as God gives that supernatural strength) but afraid at the same time just trying to walk on water so to speak like a little duck on the water with his legs peddling like mad underneath.     The emts coming in with the stretcher...a colorful vivid strange dream of flashes.

Thank God there was a happy and joyful ending.   My mother, smiling says to the emt...Hey handsome.

My heart is blessed on an extended family with differences of course, but coming together and making that beautiful bridge to help when it  mattered most and especially in prayers coupled with action.  What a beautiful Tiffany lamp, with all the different pieces coming together.


I will start to close with this video of my mother with one of our grandbabies, Jimmy.  I think this shows my mom when she is most happy!  She loves children and this is her element!  She's doing great, she will be going to my daughter's doctor, a natural doctor seen on pbs, also at one time, a specialist in medicine leaving behind the tradition as he sojourns to better, natural healing that works thanks be to God.

Thanking God for His goodness and just knowing He is there with me.  It's in the times above we must have faith.

My mother this past year with Baby Jimmy, one of our precious grandsons.  Very typical of my mother with children.


I'll be decluttering at this time, just taking it easy.  It's been such a strange several years and I'm no stranger to loss or pain, I'm also no stranger to great blessing from God.  He holds me in the palm of His hand.

My husband and I are enjoying just being and doing simple things together.  Our precious little grandbabies are a joy.   My husband and I were even able to go the Museum of Fine Arts to view the Norman Rockwell:  American Freedom exhibit. Oh a  beautiful day, just a day of building great memories.

Turning 59 years of age I'm just taking a deep breath for now, I covet your sincere prayers.   I'll be seeing you, until  the next time...

God be with you.    Amelia at the Forest Cathedral.

P.S.  I feel strongly in my spirit that I need to give an exhortation.  Please friends, if you are running a Christian blog, please be that Christian in action and response as well as what is written or shared.

Edit. 1.6.20:  To ward off confusion on the above exhortation and clarify:   It's most important as a Christian blogger, to visit other blogs and leave encouragement or just an interesting comment when able.  It's also very telling on  follow up on personal messages in a sensible time frame when possible and if seen.  For myself, I have had to go back and apologize to a precious pastor from India because I was not checking the personal message section as I should have.  Let's concentrate on fellowship and our true witness as much as numbers if we are looking at numbers at all.  The mostly anemic American church is a good example in many cases of the problem of "The Numbers Game".  For  me?  I will not play The Numbers Game.  If you would like to join me at my kitchen table here with a cup of coffee or  tea so to speak, that is a great thing in my book and close to my heart and I appreciate that so much.  I do think it's important to sensibly let people know we are gleaning from a blog author's writings as we see fit and are thoughtful, prayerful and considerate in that.  And if someone takes the time to visit our blogs?  Let's reciprocate and visit their blog too from time to time, it's nice to be nice and it's the Jesus thing to do.  If you are out there, not a blogger so to speak and just enjoy reading, having found my blog, I appreciate your cyber footsteps very much and please know you are in my prayers whatever part of the world you are in.  I appreciate you reading here and hope it is an encouragement to your heart as we sojourn in this world together.  May the Peace of God be with you.

Blessings to All, and may this New Year bring close, sweet fellowship to our Savior.